APAC HAS WORLD’S HIGHEST MOBILE TRAVELLER PENETRATION

With a rising number of Asia Pacific travellers having access to the Internet and digital banking via their smartphones, Phocuswright forecasts that mobile will be the fastest-growing online platform in the region.

“It is no surprise that China, where Weixin (WeChat), the world’s most advanced mobile messaging and commerce platform was conceived, also leads the mobile travel revolution globally,” said Phocuswright’s research analyst, Asia Pacific, Chetan Kapoor. “Mobile share of the Chinese online travel market will almost double between 2015 and 2020 to 77%, significantly dwarfing even the Western mobile markets.”

In APAC, online travel agencies are at the forefront of mobile innovation, development, marketing and distribution relative to the suppliers. In India, OTAs accounted for 88% of the mobile travel market in 2015, while their counterparts in China delivered 60% of the market’s mobile gross bookings in the same year. OTAs will remain the major force behind mobile bookings in APAC.